Image Processing Apparatus, Image Processing Method and Recording Medium

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: a recognizing device which recognizes a bone area extracted from a tomogram, the bone area including a bone site composed of several bone pieces, in units of bone pieces by estimating a range where bone sites of each of vertebra, left and right ribs, and sternum can exist using at least one of an angle formed by straight lines extending from a vertebra center, a vertebra width and a vertebra center on a CT slice image of a vertebra part, and dividing into a plurality of areas composed of vertebra area, left rib area and right rib area, and sternum area using the estimated range; a display site selecting device which selects a bone site to be displayed; a display/non-display determining device which determines a bone piece to be displayed with respect to the selected bone site; and a display controlling device which controls the display site in order to display a bone piece corresponding to the selected bone site based on the determination by the display/non-display determining device, so that a selected bone site is displayed in units of bone pieces merely by selecting the bone site to be displayed.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a correspondence relationship table predefining a correspondence relationship between bone site and bone piece to indicate if respective bone piece is to be displayed or not with respect to a bone site, wherein the display/non-display determining device determines the bone piece to be displayed with reference to the correspondence relationship table.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a changing device which changes the correspondence relationship table.

4. An image processing method, comprising steps of: recognizing a bone area extracted from a tomogram, the bone area including a bone site composed of several bone pieces, in units of bone pieces by estimating a range where bone sites of each of vertebra, left and right ribs, and sternum can exist using at least one of an angle formed by straight lines extending from a vertebra center, a vertebra width and a vertebra center on a CT slice image of a vertebra part, and dividing into a plurality of areas composed of vertebra area, left rib area and right rib area, and sternum area using the estimated range; selecting a bone site to be displayed on a display site; determining a bone piece to be displayed with respect to the selected bone site; and controlling the display site in order to display a bone piece corresponding to the selected bone site based on the determination result.

5. A non-transitory recording medium on which a program is recorded, the program causing a computer to realize functions of: recognizing a bone area extracted from a tomogram, the bone area including a bone site composed of several bone pieces, in units of bone pieces by estimating a range where bone sites of each of vertebra, left and right ribs, and sternum can exist using at least one of an angle formed by straight lines extending from a vertebra center, a vertebra width and a vertebra center on a CT slice image of a vertebra part, and dividing into a plurality of areas composed of vertebra area, left rib area and right rib area, and sternum area using the estimated range; selecting a bone site to be displayed on a display site; determining a bone piece to be displayed with respect to the selected bone site; and controlling the display site in order to display a bone piece corresponding to the selected bone site based on the determination result.